Ceribell Inc (CBLL) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

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  • Operator

  • Hello and welcome to the Ceribell Q4 2025 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions).

  • Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Brian Johnston Investor relations. Brian, you may begin.

  • Brian Johnston - Investor Relations

  • Good afternoon and thank you all for participating in today's call. Joining me from Ceribell are Jane Chow, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Scott Blumberg, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, CeriIbell issued a press release announcing financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2025. A copy of the press release is available on the investor relations section of the company's website.

  • Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make remarks during this call that include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, and that these are being made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1,995. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance are forward-looking statements. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated or implied by these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these statements.

  • For a list and description of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business, please refer to the risk factors section of our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our quarterly report on Form NQ filed with the SEC on November 4, 2025.

  • This conference call contains time sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, February 24, 2026. Theirbell disclaims any intention or obligation, except as required by law to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jane.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Thanks, Brian. Good afternoon and thank you all for joining us on our fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. 2025 was an outstanding year for Ceribell as we further penetrated our core seizure market while significantly expanding our total addressable market, which we believe has grown from $2 billion to over $3.5 billion.

  • We accomplished this while delivering robust financial results, driving rapid revenue growth, and maintaining a strong growth margin profile. I'm pleased to report that the revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $24.8 million reflecting 34% growth over the same period last year. For the four-year revenue totaled $89.1 million representing 36% growth over 2024. Gross margins were 87% and 88% for the fourth quarter and full year respectively.

  • We finished the year with 647 active accounts as of December 31, which translates to 32 net new accounts added during the fourth quarter and 118 throughout 2025. The strong performance reflects the disciplined execution of our dedicated team and predictable recurring nature of our business model. Beyond driving rapid revenue growth and expanding our account base, we laid several critical cornerstones of the foundations for ourhibition.

  • Our mission is clear, to make point of care EEG the standard of care for management of seizures in the acute care setting and to leverage our technology and footprint to establish EEG as a new vital sign. The milestones we achieved in 2025 bring this vision much closer to reality. Becoming the standard of care requires demonstrating clear superiority over the status quo. With over 140 peer-reviewed publications and abstracts, we believe we have firmly established that the cerebell system is equipped to address the unmet needs in the acute care setting but evidence alone is not enough to achieve our ambitions, we must make our technology widely available. In 2025, we undertook several initiatives aimed at bringing the benefits of our system to all patients in need.

  • First, we expanded our commercial infrastructure from 35 territories in the second half of 2024 to approximately 55 territories today. We're starting to see the signs that this investment is paying off with a very strong backlog of accounts interested in adopting our technology. Based on our experience, the timing of our investment will begin accelerating the rate of account acquisition in 2026 with further acceleration expected in 2027.

  • Second, we demonstrated our ability to accelerate utilization rates through systematic departmental expansions, protocol development, and other growth initiatives. Our playbook is well defined, and with roughly 30% penetration within our install base, we have plenty of room to dive deeper within our accounts.

  • Third, broadened access to additional sites of care by achieving set ramp high authorization, which unlocked access to all 170 hospitals within the VA system. After a comprehensive and highly successful pilot, the VA has committed to expanding within the system. The first accounts launched in the fourth quarter of 2025 and we're excited to launch even more throughout the first half of 2026. Finally, we expanded our core seizure market opportunity by approximately $400 million following the FDA clearance of our seizure detection products for neonatal and pediatric patients.

  • We expect this age range expansion to accelerate account acquisition and to drive deeper penetration into our existing install base of over 600 hospitals.

  • I'd like to spend a few minutes discussing the neonatal market. Seizures are the most common neurological emergency in the NICU and guidelines are clear in supporting the use of EEG. Still, legacy practice falls short in managing these newborns, given limited EEG capacity and the shortage of epileptologists.

  • In this patient population, 90% of seizures are non-convulsive and physicians who suspect a seizure based on observation alone are incorrect, more than 70% of them what's at stake is profound. Evidence shows that a total seizure burden of approximately 1 hour is associated with a 15% decline in cognition and language development score, a difference that can shift a child from normal neurological function to lifelong impairment.

  • Studies also demonstrate that for every hour delay in treatment, seizure duration can double. By identifying seizure earlier and initiating treatment sooner, clinicians can significantly reduce the total time the patient spends in seizure and fundamentally shift their development in a positive direction.

  • In a recent case, a 2 week old infant presented brief abnormal movements after hours. The care team suspected seizure, but required EEG for accurate diagnosis. Our neonatal head cap was set up within 10 minutes, and a few minutes later, seizure was confirmed. The infant was promptly sent for imaging, which identified cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. A stroke caused by a blood clot that can be devastating if not treated early. Empowered with this information, the care team was able to promptly and confidently treat the patient.

  • I'm happy to share that the infant is doing well today. Following treatment, there has been near complete resolution of the clot and no recurrence of seizure.

  • This story illustrates how cerebral system can change the trajectory of care in a matter of minutes, particularly in these vulnerable patients. This story is only one of many. This early clinical experience, in addition to management recognition that neonatal patients are eligible for some of the highest value DRG payments have driven momentum during our ongoing commercial pilot.

  • We believe that every NICU should have access to point of care EEG and our goal is to enable this as soon as possible. We look forward to bringing this product to the market in Q2 when we anticipate moving from the pilot stage to a full commercial launch.

  • With our expanded sales team, FedRAM approval, and FDA clearance for neonatal and pediatric patients. We have solidified the foundation of our core seizure market to set the stage for exciting 2026.

  • We believe we are less than 4% penetrated within a $2.5 billion core seizure market and see significant growth opportunities ahead. Entering 2026, the path to achieving our vision of becoming the standard of care for seizure detection within the acute care setting has never been more clear. Moving now to the second horizon of our vision to make EEG a new vital sign.

  • We believe that a single platform that can differentiate between the most common and significant neurological abnormalities impacting patients in the acute care setting could fundamentally change the treatment paradigm.

  • Just as patients who have chest pain receive an EKG, we see a future where patients with any sign of altered mental status receive cerebell as a matter of protocol. During the past 3 months, we achieved the breakthrough milestones that position us to deliver a comprehensive neuro monitoring platform for the acute care setting.

  • In December 2025, we received FDA 510k clearance for our delirium algorithm, making the cerebell system the first and only FDA cleared delirium detection and continuous monitoring device. Shortly after, in January 2026, we announced the receipt of FDA breakthrough device designation for LVO stroke monitoring in the inpatient setting. We achieved the both of these regulatory milestones ahead of schedule.

  • Let me first focus on delirium, where the need for objective monitoring is clear. Sometimes called acute brain failure. Delirium affects over 30% of patients in the ICU. Every day in the ICU with delirium carries a 10% higher mortality risk, and the risk of developing dementia is at least 60% higher if patients experience delirium in ICU. The current standard of care for diagnosing delirium is a behavior-based nursing protocol. It is subjective, burdensome, and binary.

  • The limitation of this diagnostic tool make accurate longitudinal tracking of delirium impossible. As a result, it can be difficult to assess the effectiveness of management tasks and adjust them in real time. We believe our continuous monitoring solution solves this major unmet need while also reducing nursing burden. Beyond the clear standalone need for a delirium monitoring solution, we're excited by the synergistic value of this new technology with our existing platform seizures and delirium are highly interrelated.

  • It can present similarly, but the treatment paths are diametrically opposed. The first line medication for status epilepticus is one of the most delirium-inducing agents. Complicating the picture further, 48% of seizure patients later experience delirium, and 42% delirious patients have seizure or seizure-like abnormalities.

  • We believe that the integrated platform that can monitor for delirium cocurrently with seizure will not only provide access to new patients, but also drive broader adoption within our existing patient population. Looking ahead to 2026, we plan to initiate a pilot aimed at identifying patient populations, optimizing workflow, refining our commercial message, and building clinical evidence. In parallel, we are pursuing a new technology add-on payment or NNTAP to help support adoption.

  • We're extremely excited to be the first entrant to what we believe is a $1 billion greenfield market where no other FDA cleared monitoring device is commercially available. By leveraging our established install base and existing sales infrastructure, we expect to be able to bring this techno technology to market quickly and efficiently. This combined effort will set the stage for an anticipated full commercial launch in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027.

  • Finally, turning to stroke, review our receipt of FDA breakthrough device designation as a clear indicator of the life-saving potential and the technical feasibility of our LVO stroke monitoring algorithm. For LVO patients, every minute saved can mean a week of disability-free life. Yet, when strokes occur in patients who are already in the hospital, the signs can often go unnoticed for several hours.

  • Because these patients have highly varied cognitive baselines and are often sedated, intubated, or recovering from surgery, the symptoms are incredibly difficult to spot. As a result, hospitalized patients who have a stroke face 2 to 3 times higher in hospital mortality compared to those who have stroke outside the hospital.

  • Throughout 2026, our efforts will be focused on clinical data generation and advancing regulatory milestones for the LVO stroke detection, seizure, delirium, and stroke together form the core of a technology platform that we believe will be indispensable for the vast majority of neurological patients in the acute care setting.

  • We look forward to sharing more details on the program in the quarters to come. In conclusion, I am extremely proud of the team's accomplishments in 2025 and enthusiastic about what's ahead. 2025 sets the product and regulatory foundations for our near and long-term future growth.

  • We expanded patient access through Fedre high approval and 510k clearances for pediatric and neonatal seizure detection. We also expanded our capabilities to include a new and highly related disease state with regulatory clearance of our delirium algorithm. We believe these accomplishments have nearly doubled the size of our total addressable market, which we now estimate at $3.5 billion.

  • In 2026, we'll continue driving growth by adding new accounts and driving further adoption of our adult seizure product, which still delivers the majority of our revenue.

  • We expect the upcoming full commercial launch of our pediatric and neonic products to drive upside later in 2026 and throughout 2027. We aim to further drive upside in 2027 and beyond as we work to establish a comprehensive commercial plan for the area in the coming quarters. We believe that our LVO stroke detection algorithm provides another exciting avenue for growth in the future.

  • Collectively, these efforts position us to a fundamental transformation of our business as we penetrate our large market opportunity with a single, highly integrated brain monitoring platform capable of revolutionizing care for neurological conditions. We are further along in accomplishing our mission to make EEG a new vital sign than ever before. And are increasingly confident in the transformational nature of our platform, transformational for patients. Transformational for providers and ultimately, transformational for Ceribell.

  • With that, I will now turn the call to Scott Blumberg, our CFO to provide a review of our fourth quarter results and 2026 guidance.

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • Thank you, Jane, and good afternoon, everyone. As Jane highlighted, total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $24.8 million which is a 34% increase from $18.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase is primarily driven by increased adoption of the farewell system across new and existing accounts.

  • Products revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $18.8 million representing an increase of 33% from $14.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Subscription revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $6.0 million representing an increase of 37% from $4.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Overall, we were pleased with the continued growth in active accounts and head on pursuing trends in Q4. We ended 2025 with an active account base of 647 hospitals, an increase of 32 accounts in Q4. This was achieved despite our strategy to avoid launches in the final weeks of the year.

  • Included in our Q4 launches were a small number of accounts associated with our previously announced expansion within the VA system. We anticipate the launch of additional VA accounts in the coming quarters. We also saw an increase in account utilization in Q4, which we believe reflects both the efforts of our clinical account management team and the typical seasonal patterns in which we see increased usage in the winter months when IT census is elevated.

  • For the full year 2025, total revenue was $89.1 million representing 36% growth over 2024. Product revenue for the full year 2025 was $67.3 billion an increase of 34% over 2024, and subscription revenue was $21.7 million an increase of 41% over 2024. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2025 was 87% compared to 88% in the prior year period. For the full year, gross margin was 88% compared to 87% in 2024. The decrease in Q4 reflects partial quarter impact of our transition to utilizing inventory acquired after the implementation of increased tariffs on products originating in China.

  • As a result of our efforts to mitigate the current tariff environment, including our fully operational manufacturing line in Vietnam and initiatives aimed at reducing manufacturing costs, we expect to deliver margins in the mid 80% range throughout 2026.

  • This assumption does not include any impact from Friday's Supreme Court decision or future changes in policy. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter of 2025 were $36.2 million an increase of 24% compared to $29.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Non-cash stock-based compensation expense was $3.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2025.

  • Total operating expenses in the full year of 2025 were $136.7 million compared to $96.5 million in the full year of 2024, representing an increase of 42%. Full year 2025 operating expenses included $12.2 million in non-cash stock based compensation.

  • The increase in fourth quarter and full year 2025 operating expenses was primarily attributable to investments in our commercial organization. Increase head count to support the growth of the business, legal expenses, and expenses related to operating as a public company.

  • Net loss was $13.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 or a loss of $0.36 per share compared to a loss of $12.6 million or a loss of $0.40 per share in the fourth quarter of 2024. An average weighted share count of $37.2 million shares was used to determine loss per share for the fourth quarter of 2025. Net loss for the full year of 2025 was $53.4 million or a loss of $1.46 per share compared to a loss of $40.5 million or a loss of $3.39 per share in 2024. Our cash equivalents, and marketable securities as of December 30, 2025 were $159.3 million.

  • Turning now to our outlook for 2026. We expect full year 2026 total revenue to be in the range of $111million to $115 million representing annual growth of 25% to 29% over 2025. As Jane mentioned, we currently expect to proceed with the full launch of our neonatal pediatric products in Q2 of this year.

  • While we do anticipate the sales cycle may be shorter within hospitals that are already using the Ceribelle system for adult patients, we believe in most cases we will still be subject to a multi-month sales process, including contracting, workflow design, and training. We expect to have established commercial traction across a number of hospitals by the end of the year, but given launch timing and expected sales cycles, the impact on 2026 revenue will likely be modest.

  • Our goal is to establish the pediatric and neonate products as meaningful revenue contributors in 2027 and beyond. Finally, our cash position remains strong with cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $159 million as of December 31.

  • We plan to selectively deploy capital and incremental R&D and commercial infrastructure investments to capture our untapped market opportunity and maintain rapid long-term revenue growth. That said, we remain committed to our objective to achieve cash flow break even with cash on hand. With our gross margin profile, recurring revenue model, and high customer retention rates, we remain confident in our ability to do so. With that, I'll turn the call back to Jane.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Thank you, Scott, and thank you all for your time today. In conclusion, we are very pleased with our 2025 performance and believe it positions us well for the continued growth in 2026 and beyond. I'd like to take a moment to thank the entire Ceribell team for the continued dedication to our mission of making EEG a new vital sign. I will now turn the call over to the operator for any Q&A operator.

  • Operator

  • We will now begin the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). And our first question comes from the line of Travis Deed, Bank of America. Travis, please go ahead.

  • Travis Deed - Analyst

  • Hey, congrats on the quarter and all the progress in the pipeline. Maybe I'd start with, the 2026 guidance. You're looking at, if you look at just dollar growth, about $24 million in dollar growth, roughly about the same we did in 2025, but, and your tam's doubled, you're adding, accelerating center ads in the back half of the year, utilizations increasing, so just kind of wanted to understand some of the moving parts and assumptions on 2026.

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • Hey Travis, first I want to state that our guidance philosophy hasn't changed. As we've said all along, we really appreciate the number to deliver the need to deliver on the numbers that we put forth and so we've baked in an appropriate level of conservatism into the model. As it relates to the sequential growth, I think it's important to appreciate that, the guide last year was consistent with the guide this year. And, since the philosophy hasn't changed, we think there's potential for, upside if we operate, within the, Principles that we expect to with the investments we've made as far as the pipeline goes as we mentioned we really expect that to start kicking in towards the end of this year and more into 2027 so some neonate is baked into Q4 but it's it's fairly modest but we think, as we set out for 2027 that could be contributor, next year.

  • Travis Deed - Analyst

  • Okay, maybe can you elaborate a little more on the commercial plan for for delirium and just trying to understand like how you build that up. Do you, will you start to see some potential benefits and you know account ads and account penetration from that, or is there kind of a different sales approach on the commercial plan for Delirium?

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, we are in the middle of the discussion with, some, accounts already, for the commercial pilot and majority of these accounts are more existing accounts with some of the new new accounts as well. So for the commercial pilot, we really are focused on the real world, validation of our clinical impact. So this discussion will be focused on with the accounts on, what are the best target patient population, the workflow, the, how to measure the impact and also generate case studies and clinical evidence, and therefore this. Portion, as I mentioned earlier, is largely driven by existing accounts.

  • We also see that will be reflected, at least in the near term, where delirium can drive financial and commercial impact as well. It will be more expanding, deeper utilization in our existing accounts. And in that we see two drivers. One is delirium itself would introduce new patient population. That's not seizure. And the other driver we see is there's a big synergistic, interaction between delirium and seizure, as I mentioned in the earnings call. So we could see this driver deeper into seizure population as we introduce delirium as well. Great, thank you.

  • Operator

  • Sure. And your next question comes from the line of Robbie Marcus, JPMorgan. Robbie, please go ahead.

  • Robbie Marcus - Analyst

  • Hi, this is (inaudible) Robbie. Thanks so much for taking the question. As we think about 2026, can you talk through what you see as the main levers of growth that you're pulling this year? I know you talked about accelerating account ads. So how are you thinking about balancing that with driving continued utilization and what do you see that has the most potential for upside this year in terms of leverage in the model?

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • I can touch on the levers, mechanically and maybe Jane you can comment on the the the the drivers. The two core drivers of our adult user market remain unchanged, which is the rate of account ads and the same store growth, on the accounting ads, we expect to add more accounts in 2026 and we added in 2025, and that's a result of the strategy we've laid out last year, including expansion of the sales team. Fed ramp approval, and, the acceleration from the buzz around and a and pediatric on the opportunity within the accounts we're roughly 30% penetrated within our account base and we've got a number of strategies aimed at driving that, including training more physicians, expanding to new departments and implementing protocols. We built out a robust to drive those efforts. We've got a lot of opportunity to continue to push that forward.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, and to add to what Scott has said, we have, well defined playbook in both adding accounts as well as driving utilization, and maybe I'll emphasize a cap of maybe new levers in 2026. On the account acquisition front, we are adding a new focus on driving hospital system level acquisition. So this is more focused on, both large system as well as small medium sized system instead of historically the territory manager focused on closing one or two accounts. How can we, accelerate the process of closing the entire system, say, 10 hospital sized systems. So we could see that in the, near and long-term at, more gross leverage. On the utilization front, we started more systematic departmental expansion in 2025 and we have seen consistent, impact from that departmental expansion. It could be expanding to the emergency department to additional ICU or even sometimes to the floor. So we expect to further expand what we have established in 2025 and expect to see the impact on the departmental expansion on driving utilization as well.

  • Robbie Marcus - Analyst

  • Great. That's really helpful. And then as a follow-up, how should we be thinking about spend ahead of launches and all these new indications? It's a pretty big expansion in terms of Tam when you layer on pediatric, delirium, LVL stroke. And so, is there a lot of investment that needs to be made ahead of this in terms of the salesforce and commercial infrastructure, or do you think you can largely leverage what you've already built out? Thanks so much.

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • We intend to largely leverage our commercial infrastructure. The beauty of our platform is that it's the same call point. It's the same platform. It's really just training the reps on, the new indications and it's, delivering that message to the customers. There, of course will be some upfront investment related to a product launch in terms of market marketing and market development, but in terms of the core infrastructure we expect, to have fairly modest investments there.

  • Robbie Marcus - Analyst

  • Perfect. Thank you.

  • Operator

  • And your next question comes from the line of Brandon Vazquez, William Blair Brandon. Please go ahead.

  • Brandon Vazquez - Analyst

  • Hey everyone, thanks for taking the question. I wanted to focus first on the commentary around the neonate launch. Maybe spend a little bit of, a little bit more time on the commercial launch here and digging into it. I think, as we've talked in the past, I think there's some accounts that you're already in that, now you can kind of open that neonate or the NICU, and I think just to say a little bluntly. Starting to see benefits not until like late in Q4 seems a little late in that. So maybe walk us through just why it takes a couple of quarters to start to see some of those in accounts that you're already in to make sure we're all level set on when you'll start to see those benefits more meaningfully ran.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, thank you, Brandon. So let's maybe focus on the neonate NICU expansion for existing accounts. I think that's where you're focusing on. So we have about 200 level 3, level 4 NICU in our existing accounts. If you think about the timeline, we plan to Launched in Q2. Even we are already in this hospital, to expand to a new department, hospital needs to acquire, additional recorder as well as the clarity that's dedicated to neonatal seizure detection. So that often require go through that committee and additional committee. We expect that sale cycle to be shorter than a brand new account acquisition, but that still take, several months. And even after that account acquis, departmental expansion that will. Be workflow and patient population discussion and based on our experience that often would take a couple of months as well. So if you start to think through the timeline, that's why a Q2 launch would lead to, financial or commercial impact in Q4.

  • Brandon Vazquez - Analyst

  • Okay, and then maybe I'll tie this back to a couple model questions for Scott, as we think about additional recorders and some of that stuff just reset us and and level set us on how we should be modeling some of that, how should we be thinking about where will this be reflected in the model like ASPs things like that, and then maybe if I can also tag one modeling one here from the prior question. You know what, how should we think about, I'll ask more poignantly on the OpEx line, how should we think about 26? Is it a point of leverage or does OpEx have to grow at a higher clip than your, total sales growth? Thanks guys.

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • Sure, on the commercial front for neonate, our model is that we are charging additional, subscription costs for adoption of the Neonate product. The cost of adopting Neonate, if you're already an adult, Customer is not double, but it's higher than just being an adult customer, and, we would expect, the headbands which are similar pricing model but slightly higher price, to also be included. The way it'll reflect itself in the top-line would be, not necessarily changing the number of accounts with the exception of, children's hospitals that adopt specifically for neonate, but, increase in in both product and subscription revenue through our install base.

  • As it relates to OpEx, well, we don't provide specific guidance. I'd be happy to give a little color kind of going through the different functions, in order to help you with your modeling, on sales and marketing, we believe we largely have the commercial infrastructure in place to deliver on our 2026 guidance. We will be selectively investing in opportunities to drive growth in 2027 and beyond throughout the year. That includes the previously discussed, regional system function as well as expansions within the cam or to support the growing account base and then as I mentioned earlier, there may be. Some, additional investments associated with market development activities related to the launch running products but with our our our platform and our existing infrastructure we don't expect to materially increase the size of the the sales or to support those functions.

  • On, R&D, we see a lot of opportunity ahead of us and so we're going to continue to invest in R&D. We expect a decrease in the growth rate in R&D spend this year, but, we do expect R&D growth to be outsized compared to the rest of the department given that what we have ahead of us, and then on G&A our infrastructure on G&A is largely in place, so we expect to see, material leverage there. However, I think it is worth noting that with the cadence of our patent infringement case against Natives, the IPU litigation expenses are heavily concentrated in the first half of this year, so I expect to see a little bit of elevation in G&A over the coming, two quarters or so.

  • Final note on OpEx is in line with what you see out of our peers. We expect an increase in non-cash stock-based composition, compensation expense, throughout the year as we, continue to transition to public company compensation practices. So hopefully that's helpful. I do expect overall that our OE have been moderate in 2026. You started to see some of that in in Q4 with the lowest year over year growth rate in OE, that we've seen.

  • We don't want to, we do want to strategically deploy our capital to drive long-term growth of the business. But as we make investment decisions, we've always got our eyes towards our North Star, which is to achieve break even with cash on hand, and we have very high confidence that we can do that.

  • Operator

  • Okay, our next question comes from the line of Josh Jennings, TD Cohen. Josh, please go ahead.

  • Josh Jennings - Analyst

  • Hi, this is Brian here for Josh. Thank you for taking my questions. On the revenue guidance, how is the VA expansion accounted for in your sales projections for the year, if at all? And can you review the specific tariff assumptions that go into the mid 80s gross margin guidance for the year?

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • Yes, so the VA, is incorporated in our guide in terms of the expansion that's been committed to, last year, but further expansion is not incorporated into the guide. And we'll be pursuing that with the government, the government budgeting cycle that's likely to come up for discussion towards, Q3, for late 2026 and 2027 impact above our guide potentially.

  • As far as the the tariff assumptions go, obviously there's been a lot of change over the last couple of days in terms of what our policies are.

  • Our guide does not contemplate any of those changes. So what our guide includes is the move from the prior tariff rates since 2018 in China of roughly 25% to the pre-Friday tariff rates which were in aggregate around 55% in China. Mitigated by our move in part to Vietnam with lower tariff rates as well as some reductions that we've done over the past couple of years on our our product manufacturing cost and with without any benefit from potential impacts of Friday's Supreme Court decision, we have confidence that we'll we'll maintain margins in the mid 80% range throughout the year.

  • Josh Jennings - Analyst

  • Okay, thank you. And then one follow-up if I could on the NTA for delirium, are you saying you're position to file for the NNTAP, or an NNTAP that becomes, potentially effective this October, or is this likely to be a 2027 decision for you?

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, so we submitted NA late last year. If we receive it will be effective this October in 2026, and the preliminary decision would be released by CMS in April, so in a couple of months.

  • Josh Jennings - Analyst

  • Okay terrific thank you.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Thank you.

  • Operator

  • And your next question comes from the line of Bill Plovonic, Canaccord Genuity. Bill, please go ahead.

  • Bill Plovonic - Analyst

  • Great, thanks. Good evening and thanks for taking my questions. Just for, clarity's sake, your your operating losses have decreased quarter over quarter the past two quarters. It seems like from the detailed guidance you provided, excluding any IP litigation expenses, that that trend would continue. Throughout 2026, and then we, I think we're modeling for you to get to adjusted EBITDA positive in the fourth quarter of 2026. Just any thoughts on any of those statements?

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • I don't want to go beyond the the guide to give specific comments. I will say that the investment, the infrastruc we have in place right now is sufficient to carry us forward through 2026, but we're always thinking 234 years ahead. And so as we see the impact of the investments, in terms of translating into accelerated growth, we do have a desire to invest more to drive, outsized growth in the, outer years of the model. We always pay very close attention to what that means for our overall cash position. We don't pay as much attention to time to break even, but we want to ensure that we're maximizing growth while not putting our ability to break even at risk.

  • Bill Plovonic - Analyst

  • Okay, and then on. Delirium, I'm just, is that more you just see more utilization, or I know you're trying to get the add-on, but do you think you can actually charge more? And then, what does implementation of that look like with the new algorithm? I mean, is that just a download, over the cloud, or do you have to get out in the field and, upload the new algorithm? I mean, how do you implement that? And thanks for taking my questions.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, thank you, Bill. On the pricing of Delirium, it's a little bit too early for us to come and that's part of the commercial pilot, for us to learn better about the market dynamic. We could certainly charge for, both algorithm as well as the headband, but those are the decisions we'd like to make later down the road.

  • In terms of how do we put the algorithm into, imple implement the algorithm. It's rather straightforward in that we can, remotely update both the firmware on the recorder as well as the portal, so we can turn on Delirium for our existing users and existing recorder remotely rather quickly.

  • Bill Plovonic - Analyst

  • And then are there any any incremental expenses from an internal staffing and you know reviewing the data and the reports or anything of that nature?

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • I, and Scott mentioned on commercial commercialization front, we leverage existing sales team, on the R&D and ops front there'll be some, marginal, investment we need to add in because, the portal and device gets more complex, but it's not, significant. We will also invest in marketing and market development and clinical evidence generation. But there's no major significant OpEx increase related to implementing the algorithm.

  • Bill Plovonic - Analyst

  • Okay, thanks for taking my questions.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Alright, thank you, Bill.

  • Operator

  • And your next question comes from the line of Marie Thibault, BTIG. Mary, please go ahead.

  • Marie Thibault - Analyst

  • Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking the questions. Nice to see the new account ads tick higher again sequentially this quarter. And I heard your commentary on acceleration of account ads in 2026 and 27. I suppose some of this goes hand in hand with the newer rep productivity that's coming online now, but I wanted to sort of understand. The acceleration comment, is that an acceleration from the low 30s where we are today or from the mid-20s where we were, earlier in 2025, and is that something we should expect to continue building throughout the year given the timing of some of these, newer reps that you hired maybe 12, 18 months ago?

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • At face value, the comment was specific to the full year, so I believe we added 118, in 2025, so we expect that more than 118 in 2026 that there will be some lumpiness quarter to quarter. It's not entirely linear, especially with the new health system strategy where we expect, purchase orders to come in in in bonuses, so I wouldn't expect it to be totally linear. That said, the reps do get progressive, but what we've seen historically is the reps do get progressively more and more productive between year one when they start to contribute in year two when they reach, kind of their peak productivity, and so with more reps aging into, greater productivity throughout the year, we expect a general trend of acceleration.

  • Marie Thibault - Analyst

  • All right, that's really helpful, Scott. And you touched on something I want to ask about too, which is the, process of trying to sell into the entire healthcare system, maybe sort of an enterprise-wide approach. Tell us a little bit more about what's behind the scenes there. Is that starting, are we starting to see that in accounts already or is that all to come? I think I'm a little ignorant of how, for, how recently this was brought online.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, so we saw a couple of senior territory managers last year. Had a very significant success, in selling to this small mid-sized the hospital system. And, so the success, drivers there are often these, senior TMs would work closely with the regional director and even sales, regional VP because often these systems are across different territories or different regions. So we can form a coherent system level strategy, not just focus on one or two hospitals. And also, they start to engage at the key stakeholders, especially administrators at system level, and and fine tune the value proposition at system level instead of a single ICU or single ED because of the success last year, we're expanding that model, this year. So we are relatively confident that, we can, further expand the success we saw.

  • Marie Thibault - Analyst

  • All right, very helpful. Thank you.

  • Operator

  • Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Cohen, Ladenburg Thalmann. Jeffrey, please go ahead. Jeffrey, your line is open.

  • Jeffrey Cohen - Analyst

  • Hi, sorry about that. Hi, Jane and Scott, thanks for taking our questions. Two from our end, could you talk about any, update with regard to the patent case with (inaudible) where you're at and, ramifications on any expenses for 26.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • I can talk about the processes. We're in the discovery phase and, the preliminary decision point would be on November 19, and before that there'll be a whole series of events and all that, milestones and timeline is, publicly available on the ITC website.

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • Yeah on expenses since we, kicked this off in, Q3 or so of last year we've seen relatively linear costs. We expect, given the nature of, kind of litigation that it won't be. Linear and what we're seeing is that in the depths of the kind of core of the case which is happening right now in the Q2 we'd expect ex expects to increase, and then potentially moderate Q3 and Q4 as we reach kind of the the late stages at least of the the first path here with the ITC.

  • Jeffrey Cohen - Analyst

  • Okay, got it. And then, secondly, first, can you talk about the LVO indication potentially and the call point therapy on ICU? You're also thinking about or looking into neuro and or cardiac as well?

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah. So, the, LDL monitoring would focus on the inpatient, and many of these, patients actually stay in the ICU. Therefore, again, it's the same call point. That being said, our initial finding is that there's a significant portion of patients had stroke outside the ICU, in, say, on the floor or even in the telemetry monitoring units. And they have even less or poor training on the bedside nursing on identifying stroke. And so we expect that, this would be a very synergistic add-on to both the seizure as well as the delirium.

  • I don't fully understand your comments on neuro versus cardiac. Can you reframe that?

  • Jeffrey Cohen - Analyst

  • If the majority of patients are in the ICU, is, the neurologist involved in the patient care and the equipment being used.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, for LVO neurologists would definitely be, involved, except this will be more stroke neurologists than epileptologists, but usually the current standard of care is if nursing identify any stroke, potential symptoms that would cause stroke and then the stroke team would rush to the bedside. So there's definitely, at least a general neurologist, often a stroke neurologist.

  • Jeffrey Cohen - Analyst

  • Perfect. Okay, got it. Thanks for taking our questions.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Thank you.

  • Operator

  • And our last question comes from the line of Jayson Bedford, Raymond James. Jason, please go ahead.

  • Jayson Bedford - Analyst

  • Hi, this is Elena for Jason. Thanks for taking the question. For Delirium, I was wondering, have you started the pilot launch or started any early discussions with hospitals? And if so, could you please share a little progress, or sorry, a little color on the early progress and learnings.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Yeah, so we started, discussions with, quite some accounts, already in the context of the commercial pilot. And, we do not expect, any commercial pilot to go live until Q2, as we are also in the process to make sure all the different algorithm software are all fully integrated. In terms of adding color, the initial feedback was very positive. Majority of the intensivists have high awareness of delirium and the potential harm delirium would cause and often are quite frustrated with lack of objective and continuous, biomarkers for delirium. And another strong signal is that they recognize a certain population. Have a very strong, prevalence for both delirium and seizure. So, the earlier, hypothesis validated by the physicians are device could potentially help them to detect delirium earlier, because not all the nurses are well trained and the algorithm could potentially help them to give them feedback to know whether or not they're on the right path and also to Help them to differentiate seizure and delirium under the same population. So one example is sepsis patients have altered mental status, 20%, 30% of them could have seizure and then 40% of them could have delirium, while the symptom is very similar. If patient looks very confused. So we're very encouraged by the early feedback, from the physicians and the nursing team as well as the administrators.

  • Jayson Bedford - Analyst

  • Thanks, I appreciate the color. And for my follow-up, would you be able to share your expectations on headband pricing this year? I know you've talked a little bit about the neonate headband pricing, but for overall headbands, do you expect to pass on a price increase this year?

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • This is in general or related to the delirium product?

  • Jayson Bedford - Analyst

  • Sorry, this is just in general.

  • Scott Blumberg - CFO

  • We have, maintained really strong price and discipline and consistent ASPs, over the years. I think, there's a lot unknown about the macro environment, both, some headwinds and some tailwinds as it relates to, tariffs and people's understanding of tariffs and how companies react to that, as well as, some of the pressures on hospitals. We're evaluating it, case by case, but in any regard we expect to maintain very strict, very tight pricing discipline.

  • Operator

  • That concludes our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to our co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jane Chow for closing remarks. Jane.

  • Jane Chow - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

  • Well, thank you all for joining the call. Again, we are very proud of what we have accomplished in 2025 and cannot be more excited about 2026. Thank you all.

  • Operator

  • That concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.